What do you do when you're a terrorist pent up in a huge, rundown compound with no phone or internet? Write down "vague, aspirational" terror plots in your notebook, the NYT reports. Like derailing a train on Christmas.

The semi-plot, seized in a cache of documents when Bin Laden's house was raided, hadn't been put into any sort of motion—but imagined tampering with American train tracks to send one flying off a bridge on a significant day. Christmas, the 9/11 anniversary, or State of the Union Address were all considered. Despite being nothing more than conceptual scribblings, Homeland Security's taking the notion seriously, and has dispatched warnings to rail companies.

We wonder what else was in that notebook—no doubt the guy came up with more than this half-baked train idea during all those years. [NYT]